


Death, Taxes and Collect Calling

by Reavv



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Drabble Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-05 01:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reavv/pseuds/Reavv
Summary: A collection of unfinished Boku No Hero snippets.Chap 1: Theory of Relativity. An account of Midoriya Inko; encouraging mother, loving wife, hard working grocery store manager. Retired villain.Chap 2: Marshmallow Skies. Byakuran is Izuku. This changes things.Chap 3: Gintsugi. To repair broken pottery with silver. To make something whole again, if a little harder and a little colder than before.





	1. Theory of Relativity

**Author's Note:**

> More to come for this one, probably, so I won't spoil where it goes from here.

Midoriya Inko is a cheerful, empathetic person even before she becomes a mother. She enjoys helping out her neighbours, is more than willing to lend an ear when someone needs it, and goes out of her way to be polite to even the surliest of her co-workers.

She likes to think the best of people—not because she is naive, but because she knows no matter what, evil is just a frame of mind. It’s as easy to shed as her old name was.

 

—

 

Dark Matter didn’t start out as a villain. She has no real desire for riches, for fame. She doesn’t like the theatrics of mainstream villains—considers it tacky and in poor taste.

She lives in a poor part of town however, and her friends are all part-time criminals or slowly dying from poverty. Her best friend from grade school kills herself when she’s fourteen—and well, there’s no going back.

It’s a simple thing, really, to decide that if society doesn’t want anything to do with her, than she doesn’t want anything to do with society.

 

—

 

She meets Midoriya Hisashi for the first time when she’s twenty three. She doesn’t know that’s his name at first, of course. Quantum is almost as secretive as she is, and no amount of digging unearths his civilian alias until it’s too late.

He’s handsome, but she spends too much time trying to kill him to really appreciate it. That’s ok though, because he also spends an equal amount of time trying to burn her face off, so she figures they’re even.

 

—

 

Dark Matter has a gravity Quirk. It can, if she wants it to, crush limbs and stop hearts. If she has the time, the desperation, and enough debris around her, she can make miniature black holes. She uses her skills for assassination, for intimidation, for gently levitating cats out of trees. She’s what you would call an underground villain.

Quantum can vibrate the particles around him into igniting. He can make fire, plasma, lasers, gas. He can ignite the oxygen in someone’s lungs, if he had the willingness to do so. Instead, he uses it to fight Yakuza and the Mafia and shadowy figures like Dark Matter whose power is more than just dangerous. He’s what you would call an underground hero.

Their story isn’t that of Romeo and Juliet. They hate each other at the start. Respect comes later, after blood and tears have been shed by both, and the ashy taste of mutual debt is cleared. When Dark Matter saves Quantum from dying under a collapsed building, and Quantum hides her from the authorities when she collapses in exhaustion.

But love comes to all those that let it, and flame is just as susceptible to gravity as the broken debris of fallen buildings. More than that, they cancel each other out in such a way that it seems like fate.

Dark Matter—who is steady and dependable. Always in motion, the ebb and flow of gravity itself, but in perfect equilibrium. Orbits and inertia.

Quantum—who is heat and light. In constant flux, unstable. Who is all about entropy and change.

Neither of them ever win a fight against each other—and that says a lot, doesn’t it?

 

—

 

When she becomes pregnant it isn’t a surprise. They’ve been trying for a while, and there’s a joyful party when the test results come back positive. There’s cake and cheesy gifts and if it’s just her and Hisashi alone in their cramped apartment, well that’s just fine by her.

Hisashi goes off on assignment a few months after Izuku is born, and she doesn’t begrudge him it. His work pays well now that he’s with a new agency, and she’s long given up her own for a life of warmth and shining smiles and a place she can call home.

It’s safer this way too. More people know his face than they know hers, and Izuku is safer in her arms far away from any fallout of his dangerous job.

Not that she wouldn’t mind a little more help in raising their son, but she understands. Anyways, she finds being a mother suites her, and it’s not like she has a career to push for.

 

—

 

Once upon a time she wanted to be a scientist. Someone who uncovers the deepest darkest secrets of the universe.

Hisashi has always wanted to be a hero, although not necessarily one in the limelight. His desire has always been pure—that of someone who honestly just wants people to be happy.

Izuku is a perfect blend of his parents.

 

—

 

Izuku doesn’t develop a Quirk. When he’s four she brings him to a specialist, who hems and haws and takes an x-ray of his foot. He has the right bone, he says, so it’s likely he’s just a late bloomer, or that his Quirk is something more subtle than telekinesis and fire breathing.

Izuku isn’t necessarily crushed—but it’s close.

The attitudes of his classmates start changing around the same time. In a few years, when he still doesn’t have anything to show for his supposed Quirk, they turn down right malicious.

 

—

 

For once it’s not the part of her psyche that Dark Matter resides in that screams for blood. And what a joke it is, that she picked the name she did. Matter, mutter, madre. In English the root of the word matter comes from mother.

Inko sees the way her child is treated, and it is the mother in her that rages.

 

—

 

Midoriya Izuku is the perfect blend of his parents however. He is bright, and empathetic, and level-headed, and willing to dream big. He wants to be a hero for pure reasons, and he’s just a little reckless.

Midoriya Inko tries to shelter his innocent heart and mostly succeeds. She goes out of her way to try and keep him safe, but she doesn’t clip his wings. He falls and cries and picks himself up again. She cannot do much against society's view of him—has tried in her youth and learnt that change isn’t wrought with broken bones.

But she tries.

Izuku makes it hard for her. He doesn’t want her help in school—doesn’t want to be a burden or worry her. He wants to be a hero after all, and heroes aren’t the ones that need saving.

 

—

 

Bakugou Katsuki tries to punch Izuku when they’re six. Until then they’ve been rather good friends, even if the boy does tend to be bossy and drag Izuku into trouble. Her boy worships him, for his flashy Quirk and determination to be a hero.

Inko has to stop herself from doing something—drastic. She recognises an ego in the making, and she’s worked with people whose only concern is power in her other life. He’s told he’s the best in everything because of the power of his Quirk, but all she sees is a boy on the cusp of drowning.

If it goes unchecked he very likely will end up with a skewed sense of reality—where he is the strongest no matter what.

But he’s Izuku’s only friend, and just a child besides. He needs help, not Dark Matter’s cold righteousness, so she bottles up the feeling and tries her best to sand away his sharp edges. She tries to show him strength outside of Quirks and heroes. Of handmade lunches and homework done together in the kitchen with a friend who smiles like he has the sun caught between his teeth.

She lets Izuku deal with the nitty gritty. All she can do is lead by example.

And talk to Bakugou’s mother to get him into getting him therapy as soon as possible.

 

—

 

Izuku grows, as all children do. He has his scraps and his adventures and his minor triumphs. He continues to dream for something his peers all say is impossible for someone without a Quirk. She buys All Might memorabilia and lets him plaster his walls with poster after poster.

He passes through school in his usual daze—getting full marks because she’s been able to pass on her own inquisitive nature if not her Quirk. Bakugou and him go through phases—friends to enemies and back again. She tries to help, when she can, but her son only grows more independent.

She finds herself a job at a local grocery store as a manager—one of her first legal jobs since her teens. It eats up the hours that Izuku is in school, and has the added benefit of introducing her to all the neighbours and regulars in the area, cementing her identity as Midoriya Inko, civilian mother.

Hisashi continues to be absent, but he sends cards and money and gifts when he can, and when he can’t she knows it’s because the danger is too much. Even now there are people who whisper in the shadows of the hero with fire in his heart.

Life is going good, and if there are times of trouble it is the usual growth pains. There are still things she wishes she could change—her hot-headed youth of wishing for societal change hasn’t disappeared, only cooled.

And then Izuku meets a blond man with a shining smile.


	2. Marshmallow Skies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I will continue this one. At some point Byakuran meets Shinsou and havoc is made

Izuku doesn’t have a Quirk. Sorta. Kinda. He has the toe joint to prove it even. Which is good, because otherwise his teachers might think he’s somehow cheating on his tests, and his homework, and his general just—whatever. A few of them have tried to theorise that he just has a very subtle one, especially since any Quirk would seem subtle when contrasted with his friend Bakugou. Not that he’s the type to have something that—explosive—anyways. He certainly doesn’t have the personality for a fire Quirk or strength Quirk or something  _ useful _ , but maybe something to do with memory or learning... 

But no, Izuku doesn’t have a Quirk. 

Byakuran touches the mirror in front of him and laughs. Green hair, green eyes, freckles. A face made for smiling. He tries one on for size and it ends up being sharp enough to cut. 

“Hmm, interesting,” he mutters, leaning further in to peer at the points of his teeth. The chubby cheeks are a little disconcerting, but he is somewhat used to looking younger than he actually is at this point. Even if six is a little younger than he normally bothers with. 

He leans back and hums, smile still fixed on his face. 

This is interesting for sure—more interesting than documenting his past mistakes and  _ almost  _ more interesting than his good friend Tsunayoshi. It’s not the first time he’s lived other selves, of course, but usually they are his own and not—whoever this is supposed to be. Not him, that’s for sure. And this world is very much not even close to lining up with his usual multiverses. 

He taps a finger to his lips and stretches his grin wider. The first years were a bit confusing, he’ll admit. This body had seemed predisposed to crying at every little thing, which was very much not an instinct Byakuran’s ever had. Made him slightly more sympathetic towards Tsunayoshi-kun. And his memories were sluggish to come back, which is something else he is very much not used to. A true reincarnation instead of simply re-living other lives—fascinating. 

He thinks he likes it. 

He thinks he also likes the idea of a world without Flames—without the mafia. He’ll miss his sometimes-friends sometimes-enemies, no doubt, and he doubts he’ll find anyone quite as fun to play with as Tsunayoshi, but that’s the price of finding yourself in a world where no one knows your sins and weaknesses. He still has the power of the ring, after all, and he’s not likely to relive his mistakes. 

There’s no one in this universe prepared for him. He thinks the feeling boiling in his gut can be described as the first soft touches of manic joy. 

Oh the fun to be had! 

 

—

 

Midoriya Izuku is a weird child. Anyone who spends more than a few minutes with him can agree to that. It’s not just his above-average intellect and maturity, either, although those two things have helped more than one of his teachers call home in hopes of moving him up—and away from them. 

No, it’s his cheerfulness that really sticks a knife in the cake, as it were. That look in his eyes that says he’s amused by everything you could try to do to him. That smile that shows just a little too much teeth. The way his face doesn’t even flinch as he’s pushed around. The way that he laughs, a little, in the face of those who try to bully him.

And the way those bullies all mysterious get into accidents when out of his sight. 

 

—

 

Bakugou Katsuki has the strongest offensive Quirk in class, and thus all the admiration of his peers and teachers. He likes it that way, even as he looks down on the simpering and the praise. He knows just enough to be disdainful of the two-faced attitude of those around him.

He doesn’t like the weak—which Izuku is. As with most thing that Katsuki doesn’t like, he tries to blow him up. 

It doesn’t work. He ends up at the hospital for a broken wrist and a bruised ego, and the creepy laugh of a child-turned-psychopath will haunt him for years. The fact that Izuku doesn’t have a Quirk and still somehow beat him—doesn’t make sense. The fact that the boy didn’t even touch him to do it, simply used the environment and somehow knew that the shelf would fall when it did—

It’s rage-inducing. Enough that he vows then and there that he’s gonna pummel that smug face in if it’s the last thing he does. 

 

—

 

Izuku decides they’re friends the next day. 

 

—

 

It’s important to remember that Byakuran was the leader of a military organisation, the Don of not one but two Mafia families, and the only one who could look at someone like Bluebell and think “good minion candidate”. 

Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t stand a chance. He’s getting assimilated into Izuku’s sphere of influence whether he wants to or not. It will probably end up being painful for the both of them, but it’s happening.

There’s no one else around with such a  _ useful _ Quirk, nor a personality to match. Not to say that Izuku can’t make use of about any Quirk that lands in his lap, with the right application of creativity, but Bakugou is the only one who’s going to become a pro-hero. 

Not to mention the other boy is just plain amusing. Almost makes Izuku feel nostalgic for another hot-tempered demolitionist. 

 

—

 

The world Byakuran now lives in is interesting, for sure, but also somewhat disappointing. All this power, all these Quirks, and yet the criminal element seems to be happy to languish in the spotlight so that the pro-heroes can sell more posters. It’s a business, which he can almost get behind, but it’s also such a waste. 

Where’s the thrill in it? The emotion? The earnest speeches about friendship and love made by fourteen year olds from the past here to kick your ass for trying to take over the world?

Not to mention Izuku can’t help but feel insulted that the same people who are deciding Quirk laws are also the ones profiting from sales of kids toys—half the hero agencies are obviously corrupt and the government is no better, which is great if you’re after a quick buck but bad if you want an actually functioning system. Considering Byakuran was able to cobble together a better world order than one where highschool students can get hero licenses says a lot. 

His days of world domination are long behind him, however. Which means he’s going to have to be a little more creative if he wants to rock the boat. 

Luckily there’s no laws against applying for U.A. without a Quirk, and it doesn’t matter if people think he can’t do it. He has Kaachan, a handful of knives, and the power of the multiverse at his fingertips. 


	3. Gintsugi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gintsugi - To repair broken pottery with silver. To make something whole again, if a little harder and a little colder than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to write a fic where Izuku was the meaner one for once. I love cinnamon roll Izuku too, and I know most people are really into his canon personality, so this probably isn't everyone's cup of tea. As such, this is my warning that these fics are all AU as fuck, and mostly crack fic at that.

When Izuku is nine, he breaks. This is not a metaphor—his right arm and left pinky require casts, though it is the broken nose and right floating rib that really throb. And it is the mental break that really does lasting damage. Being Quirkless really shouldn’t have been such a big deal, in the grand scheme of things, but years of harassment and bullying finally did what the statistics all say they do.

The worst bit is he knows Kacchan didn’t even mean to do it, or at least not in the way it ended up happening. The other boy is aggressive and egotistical and lacking in empathy, but even at nine, he’s not stupid.

You can’t be a hero if you’re arrested for assault before you’re even in high school, after all.

—

He’s not actually arrested of course. For one thing, he’s just nine. For another, no one really thinks too much of Izuku—small, Quirkless, timid—supposedly getting into a fight and breaking a few bones. Boys will be boys and all that. Katsuki gets reprimanded from the school and suspended for a week. In the end, it seems like a pitiful punishment in contrast to the real retribution coming his way.

And of course, there’s his own guilt, but that gets buried as far down as he can force it.

—

Izuku before the accident is a nervous, shy wreck, but he makes up for it with determination and and the will to do good. Izuku after the accident is no longer nervous, or shy, but he’s still a wreck. It’s just that it took everything else from him too.

The first day, when he gets back to school after recuperating at home for long enough for his bruises to turn yellow and his casts to get a little disgusting, he stares and stares and stares and says not a word. Even when Katsuki comes back and they’re put in a room together so the boy can very reluctantly apologise, he doesn’t say anything. As the weeks go by the class slowly goes from jeering and sympathetic to uncertain and unnerved.

He doesn’t flinch back from Katsuki’s Quirk, doesn’t show fear when the bullying picks back up from the other classes, looks bored at the teacher’s disdain. It’s like a switch has been flipped, and the boy they all knew is now this empty shell, echoing all their words back at them.

A year passes, two. Still he doesn’t improve. He gets passing grades and fills notebook after notebook of Quirk analysis, but the fire that was Izuku has been snuffed for good.

But he becomes very good at faking it. And more than that, he becomes very good at weaponizing it.

—

They’re fourteen and expected to have decided what to do for the rest of their lives. Kacchan is planning on going to Yuuei, of course, and once upon a time Izuku would have been right there with him.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you Kacchan?” he says with a smile that’s as dead as his tone of voice. Katsuki’s face twists into a snarl.

“Fuck off, Deku, I don’t need any of you extras,” is his predictable answer. Izuku clamps down on the wrist reaching to explode his face and smiles wider. Inko had enrolled him in a self-defense class that was as grueling as it was rewarding, and these days the only way Kacchan can get away with his attacks is if he’s actually going in for the kill, which he no longer has the will to do.

_Damn guilt._

“Don’t touch me!” he snaps, wrenching his arm out of Izuku’s grasp. The rest of the class awkwardly looks the other way as he clenches his teeth and Izuku continues smiling.

“Of course I’m just going for the General Studies program, but I’m sure we’ll see each other all the time, isn’t that great!” Izuku says, as if he can’t see the steam rising from Katsuki’s hands.

“Shut up!” he snaps, but doesn’t try to go for another stranglehold, which Izuku considers progress. It just took years and more trauma than either of them are comfortable dealing with, but look at them now! Izuku spitefully maintaining a relationship that’s unhealthy at best because it actually hurts Katsuki more to be confronted with the consequences of his actions, and Katsuki very slowly learning that the first instinct of killing whatever disagrees with him is both wrong and inefficient.

Ah, personal growth.

“You’re leaving holes in your attack again, Kacchan,” Izuku says instead, tapping his pen to his notebook. It’s his own personal hobby to deconstruct Katsuki’s fighting style, picking it apart and criticising it until the other boy is red in the face from anger. Katsuki doesn’t like being told of any of his weaknesses after all.

“Tch,” he grunts, turning away completely and crossing his arms.

“I hope the Hero program doesn’t require you to go up against Quirkless villains, or anything. You’re useless against just me, after all,” he continues with the same placid smile.

Katsuki’s head snaps around and you can actually see his control snap. It’s like a mini bomb goes off in his eyes.

“DEKU!” he shouts, jumping off his seat and hands sparking. Izuku laughs and dodges the fist aiming for his head, packing up his books and dashing out the door. The bell rings on the heel of Kacchan’s yell of rage as he pursues.

They practically live next door, so the chase has the added benefit of carrying them both home. Izuku makes sure to use the most inconvenient path to do so—climbing over fences and over rooftops, taking shortcuts and backtracking multiple times, forcing Kacchan to use his Quirk or risk getting left behind.

It’s training, of a type that Katsuki continuously refuses to acknowledge, and if anyone were to watch them it would look nothing more than a villain being chased by a hero.

Izuku grins, the wind tugging at his curls as he runs, and slides off the road so suddenly that Katsuki goes flying past him. There’s a path under the upcoming bridge that no one ever uses, and it’s the perfect spot for an ambush. Time to test whether last week’s attack with the dogs has taught Katsuki anything after all.

—

Of course even the most well thought-out plans can go bad, even when you think you’ve accounted for all possibilities.

Izuku looks up at the wall of sludge looming over them and grins.

_“Well what do we have here?”_

—


End file.
